Page 19 of Coach (Shady Valley Henchmen #8)

Coach

Este slept long and deep, her body so relaxed that I barely disturbed her when I slipped out from underneath her in the early morning hours when Trix finally had enough waiting.

She’d been restless for the past hour, grumbling, rolling around, watching Este for any signs of life.

Until, finally, she got off her bed to pace and whimper.

“You gotta go out?” I asked, my voice low, as I looked for her leash. I hooked it on. “Let’s let Mom sleep, okay?” I asked her as she looked back to the bed, uncertain. “Gotta go outside, girl,” I reminded her.

Luckily, she agreed, going with me down the steps and out the back door.

She dragged me around the grounds, sniffing hard at the chicken coop, her ears pricking when she heard clucking inside.

When she finally seemed to tire herself out enough, we went back inside, where I fed her a breakfast of leftover hamburger that she ate greedily, not even caring that the club was waking up around her, the men stumbling into the kitchen in search of coffee.

“Morning,” Saint said, wide awake, still on prison time.

“Morning,” I said, pulling Trix a little closer as Rafe and Steve made their way downstairs.

“I fed the cat. And snipped those fucking talons of his.”

“And you’re not all bloodied?” I asked, impressed.

“Got him wasted on catnip first,” Saint admitted. “He was laying on his back, eyes huge. Reminded me of the first time I saw someone on shrooms.”

“Explains why he hasn’t come over to greet anyone,” I said, glancing over to find him out cold on his tree stand.

“Where’s Detroit?” Raff asked, bleary-eyed.

“Not coming this morning,” Saint said. “He called earlier.”

“He’s not coming?” Raff asked. “We’ll starve.”

A snort escaped me at that. “The diner will open soon.”

“I can make breakfast,” Saint offered.

“You?” Raff asked, dubious.

“Not claiming to be as good as Detroit, but, yeah, I can cook. Or, I could. Been a few years. Hard to fuck up eggs though.”

With that, Saint got to work.

By the time the first pot of coffee was gone and the next was brewed, Saint had a dozen egg and cheese sandwiches ready for the taking, along with a giant pile of bacon and orange slices.

“Wouldn’t be a Saint breakfast without the damn oranges,” Syn said when he appeared.

“Had to keep your ass from getting fucking scurvy,” Saint said, passing his brother a plate.

“Mind if I take two up?” I asked.

“Tell Este good morning for us,” Saint said, passing me the plates, then a separate one with some bacon on it. “For Trix,” he said as I put the plates and cups of coffee onto a tray.

I didn’t even need Trix’s leash. With the promise of bacon, she trotted along beside me, completely ignoring everyone else as we went.

“Oh, hey,” Este said, pressing a pair of my sleep pants to her chest like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

“I was hoping I’d catch you before you got up,” I said. “Wanted to pull off the whole breakfast in bed thing.”

“I did a mad dash across the hall to the bathroom. And stole the only extra toothbrush in the drawer. I was about to steal pants to come see where my dog disappeared to.”

“She went pee, figured out what chickens smelled like, and had some hamburger. Though she is whimpering at the promise of some bacon too. Hungry?”

“Starving,” she said, dropping the pants and making her way back to the bed. “I’ve never been brought breakfast in bed.”

“I’ve never brought anyone breakfast in bed. Though I have to confess that I didn’t actually cook it. Saint stepped up this morning. You need to eat your orange slices. He is very concerned about scurvy.”

“Well, yes, I have been traveling on a pirate ship for the past few years,” she said, reaching for an orange slice. “Thanks for letting me sleep in.”

“Seemed like you needed it. You slept like the dead. Almost put a mirror under your nose.”

“I don’t usually. I’m typically really restless. Maybe it was your calming energy,” she said, shrugging.

My calming energy.

The full-body orgasms.

One or the other.

Even just the memory of her sighs and moans and shaking had my cock starting to stiffen.

My gaze slid down to her hands as she reached for a cup of coffee, remembering her nails raking down my arms, my back. I could still feel the sting of them on my skin each time I moved.

We ate our breakfast, occasionally remarking on something Trix was doing or whatever was playing on the TV.

By the time we were done, Trix was taking a morning nap, completely upside down on the dog bed, her body twisted at an awkward angle.

“What time do you have to be at work?”

“Not until just before it opens,” she said. She was aiming for casual, but just the mention of work had her stiffening.

Interesting.

I couldn’t imagine the Novikoffs were easy to work for, but I knew them to be good men. I wondered if someone else at the pool hall was giving her a hard time. Or if she simply didn’t love the work.

“Any reason you need to rush home?” I asked, putting the tray on the nightstand.

“God, no.”

“Well then,” I said, reaching for her, pulling her over to sit between my legs, her back to my chest. “I can keep you all to myself for a while then.”

“That sounds great,” she said, leaning back into me as she pulled her knees up, making the tee slip up, revealing more of her legs.

I pulled my legs up over hers, hooking them, pinning them open, keeping her spread wide.

“Saul…”

“Hmm?” I asked, leaning my head down to tease my lips down the shell of her ear.

Her head fell to the side, inviting more as her hips wiggled, desperate for touch.

She would get it.

But not just yet.

I wanted her damn near crying for it.

My hands slid up and down her body, skimming her thighs, caressing her breasts, going everywhere… except where she needed it most.

When her breath was coming in shallow gasps and her nails were scratching down her own thighs, only then did my hand slip between her thighs.

“Drenched,” I murmured, my thumb working her clit and two of my fingers slipping inside her.

She rocked restlessly against my touch, her little mewling sounds growing to soft moans as I lazily drove her up, refusing to give in to her demands to go faster or harder.

Este’s hands grabbed my thighs, fingers clenching, nails digging in.

Her body tensed, muscles shaking.

“Come for me,” I demanded.

A moment later, she did just that. And the way she moaned my name nearly undid me.

But I wanted her pleading for it.

So I let her come back down, then started to fuck her with my fingers again. This time, it was harder, faster, more demanding.

As I drove her back up, I reached into the nightstand to grab a condom, using my teeth to nip it open.

By the time she was begging for me, all I had to do was slide on the protection and push her forward onto all fours.

I gathered up her tee, fisting the material at the center of her back as I slid in behind her. I let my cock rock against her until she was fisting the sheets, until she was lowering down on her elbows, her ass high in the air.

Only then did I slide deep inside her.

“Fuck,” I groaned as her pussy clenched around my cock.

I knew there would be no dragging it out, making it last. I was just as desperate as she was as she cried out against the bedding.

I fucked her hard and fast, holding her in place by her shirt.

It wasn’t long before she was slamming back into me as her moans grew deeper.

“There you go,” I murmured as she tightened hard around me. Her breath caught, then released on a groan as she came, her pussy clenching around me over and over, taking me along with her.

We both collapsed afterward—Este falling forward, me dropping down beside her.

I came back to myself slowly, but the general feeling of pleasure seemed rooted in all my nerve endings as I reached for Este.

I rolled her onto her back, then leaned over her to press my lips to hers. We kissed deep and long until I slowly drew away.

“I was starting to think I needed to ask for some meditation tips,” she said, looking up at me with soft, unfocused eyes. “I think I like this better.”

A laugh rumbled out of me as I brushed some of her hair off her face. “Sex is its own form of mindfulness. Forces you to focus on the moment. If anyone is drifting off, something is going wrong.”

“So,” she said, folding up to look down at me, cheeks still flushed from our fucking, lips swollen from kissing. I wasn’t sure she’d ever been more beautiful. “If I need some… mindfulness practice…”

“You know exactly where to find me.”

“Good,” she said, shooting me a little smile that quickly fell.

“What is it?”

“Trix has been suspiciously quiet for too long,” she said, sitting up straighter, then wincing.

“What’d she do?”

“Well, I probably should have mentioned her mortal enemy: the fluff inside really nice, very expensive dog beds.”

I turned my head, finding the dog in a sea of white fluff.

Seeing herself caught, another wad of fluff dropped out of her mouth at a comically slow speed.

The laugh that burst out of me, though, was quick.

Este’s was more hesitant but quickly joined mine as Trix realized she wasn’t in trouble.

She dropped down on her front legs, ass in the air, then darted across the room, nearly sliding into the record cabinet.

Circling back, she landed on the bed, shoving her head inside the bed and ripping out more filling.

“Oh, boy,” Este said, climbing off the bed to start gathering fluff. “I will replace this, obviously.”

“Nah, don’t worry about it. We have several. And maybe I will find her a new bed made of tougher material. You had fun, huh?” I asked, petting her head as she sat there, panting. “That’s what counts.”

“This is why she needs long walks. And lots of fetch. She turns a little destructive if she’s bored.”

“We all have our vices,” I said, gathering up the bed and shoving it into the closet so Trix couldn’t create another mess.

After that, though, reality kind of interloped into the fantasy world we’d been wrapped up in.

Trix needed to go back outside.

So we both got dressed and took her out for a long walk.

Este spent some time with the chickens while I held Trix far away when we realized she didn’t see them as friends but as walking meals.

After that, we had some more coffee before Este decided it was probably time for her and Trix to get going so she had time to wear out the dog and get herself ready for work.

I just barely managed not to tell her to blow off work, to stay locked up in my room with me.

I didn’t want to overwhelm her.

She’d come to me already.

She would come again.

Much more readily now that the first time was over with.

I just had to be patient.

And while she was gone, I would buy a new bed for Trix.